Max Hoffmann

Max Hoffmann (25 January 1869-8 July 1927) was a Generalmajor of the Imperial German Army during World War I, serving as Chief-of-Staff of the German forces on the Eastern Front.

Biography
Max Hoffmann was born on 25 January 1869 in Homberg, Hesse, German Empire, and he studied at the Prussian Military Academy before joining the army in 1887. He graduated from the academy in 1889, and he served as an observer of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Russo-Japanese War, learning the Russian Empire's tactics and studying them in the case of a war with Russia. Hoffmann held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Imperial German Army at the start of World War I, and he helped the Germans in planning the victory at the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914. In 1916, he succeeded in bringing all Central Powers forces on the Eastern Front under the command of the German general staff, including the armies of Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria. During the chaos following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Hoffmann led six German divisions to capture Riga in Latvia from the democratic government, but he was later dismissed by Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff due to disagreements over the postwar Germany-Poland border. He died in 1927.